The Triumph of Love

The Triumph of Love brings an entirely new kind of Venetian painting into the Ashmolean collection, a secular allegorical theme by Venice's greatest painter, and a new type of domestic picture, a cover for a portrait.

The rondel depicts Cupid trampling a lion and represents love conquering bestiality. It would seem that the work originally functioned as a cover for a portrait by Titian. In spite of the importance of the Ashmolean's Italian Renaissance collection, there are surprisingly few secular paintings on mythological or allegorical themes. This work is a valuable addition to the collection and complements the other Titian portrait acquired with Art Fund help in 2000. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.

Nominally inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire takes its scientific subject and embellishes it with fantastical creatures from the artist's imagination: Bulls, bears, lions and deer-like creatures with human faces all flee wearily from a fire.

Rubens' portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel dates from about 1629. The Earl was a great collector, and Rubens had painted the earl's wife a few years earlier on a visit to Antwerp. This drawing in pen and ink with a chalk base is unusually informal, reflecting perhaps the comfortable relationship between artist and patron.